(Newser)
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Mitt Romney tried to unburden himself of some left-wing baggage in a talk-radio interview this weekend—but the National Review’s Mark Hemingway says he may have gone too far. In praising the work of W. Cleon Skousen, his former BYU professor and an “all-around nutjob," Romney may have overcorrected in his attempt to shore up conservative cred.

In his heyday, Skousen complained that communists were infiltrating the John Birch Society, wanted to deny Mormon priesthood to African-Americans and was even called “an incipient Hitler” by the mayor of Salt Lake City. The writer doubts Romney believes anything so “outlandish," but warns the candidate to keep the Skousen connection “chained to a radiator in the attic.”